Jeremy Stancroft
'Jeremy Stancroft '''is the main antagonist of the 2013 Uwe Boll film ''Assault on Wall Street. He was portrayed by the late John Heard. Personality Jeremy Stancroft is a Wall Street portfolio manager who relentlessly defrauds clients to scam them out of their hard-earned money by selling them toxic assets. He ran a Ponzi scheme throughout the city of New York and covered that up by simply blaming failures of other businesses. He became a billionaire and into old age never saw any legal problems that could have otherwise resulted in him meeting any combination of the following sanctions of incarceration for committing one or more first-degree felonies related to grand theft and Ponzi schemes, house arrest, seizure of his assets or penalty fines. As the movie takes place in 2008, this was during the beginning of the 2008 global financial crisis that triggered a large recession. Jeremy Stancroft played a key role in triggering the recession for his own gain, as he triggered the foreclosure of several big banks and housing properties in New York which kicked out many hard-working New Yorkers out on the streets and losing their jobs and life savings while he saw more money flow into his pockets. Stancroft is very self-aware of how corrupt and immoral his actions are. He defends that capitalism is a surivival-of-the-fittest pyramid in itself and because the United States is a capitalist nation, it has always been about rich people cannibalizing off poor people rather than working hard and honestly. Biography The film opens with Jeremy Stancroft being warned about the beginning of a recession coming forward in the United States. Two executive financial analysts desperately beg Stancroft to come up with an emergency fund that can reimburse clients whom Stancroft sold fabricated non-existent loans and toxic assets. Stancroft refuses to give up any money to reimburse the pension fund investors who have been hurt by the market crash despite the fact that the majority of investors are not wealthy but rather making low to middle income. The analysts refute that refusing to start a reimbursement fund can expose the company for defrauding clients. Stancroft claims he's not too worried about that, and so he orders the analysts to dump the crashed and burnt stocks all on the investors and force them to pay tens of thousands of dollars to the company out of their own pockets. Stancroft claims he only cares about saving his company and "Fuck all the others!" Days later, just as the analysts have predicted, Stancroft's company is exposed of dumping stocks and the radio commentators are urging the working-class Americans to start rioting and protest Wall Street. Despite being exposed of illicit activites and cooking the books, there are no litigations, class-action lawsuits or federal investigations happening against Wall Street. The film's protagonist, Jim Baxford, ends up owing $60,000 because he invested in a toxic hedge fund that has collapsed because of the 2008 financial crisis. Jim Baxford made Stancroft a target for murder out of anger that the recession caused by corrupt Wall Street bankers made him lose his job, his wife and his house. After killing several wealthy businessmen of Wall Street, Baxford made Stancroft his final target as while a SWAT team was converging upon the building that Stancroft operates in. Baxford shoots dead an armed security guard (who only got Baxford in the shoulder) while scariing away the female operatives working for Stancroft. Baxford removes his white mask and points his gun at Stancroft sitting in his chair. Baxford orders Stancroft to "sell me" and convince him to spare his life. Stancroft rationalizes that he was only doing what America's elite rich have been doing for centuries - scamming and cheating the lower and middle class of their hard-earned money as part of the capitalist survival-of-the-fittest model - mentioning the Rockefellers, the Morgans, the Carnegies, the Hearsts, the Gettys, the Vanderbilts have been doing this and earned positive reputation and glamorous publicity that got them praised and called "American heroes" for centuries. Stancroft gives a valuable history lesson to Baxford in that instead of working hard and making tremendous discoveries in either finance, steel, automobiles or petroleum oil, what the very first rich people of America did was annex territory, start a genocidal extermination of the indigenous populations of Native Americans living on said lands, import slaves from Africa and buy seats in government to expand their influence. Stancroft belittles and mocks Baxford for having reduced to a life of crime and murder to resist the same system that made America so rich: free-market Laissez faire capitalism. Stancroft gloats that in capitalism, it's the strong versus the weak, and that he came out strong while the weak die off. Baxford shows him a photograph of his dead wife Rosie and asks, "You mean like her?" and claims that she died because of Stancroft, who is visibly shaken that he (indirectly) killed a young woman. Baxford places his firearm on the table and tells them they're going to grab for it on the count of 3. As Baxford says "1, 2...", Stancroft grabs the gun. Baxford retorts that he cheated. Stancroft gloats that's not important, but what is is that he won. Stancroft pulls the trigger, but it turns out it's empty. Baxford remarks he cheated too. Suddenly, the SWAT team arrives and shoots down Stancroft as whlie Baxford drops to the floor pretending to be a hostage. The SWAT Team pin all of Baxford's murders of wealthy bankers all on Stancroft as while Baxford walks free planning far more murders of wealthy corrupt businessmen such as Stancroft. It is unknown what happened to Stancroft's fortune following his death, although it can be speculated that it was routed back to the New York investors who were hurt by the 2008 financial crisis including Baxford. Trivia *Stancroft was portrayed by the late John Heard, who was made famous for playing the father of Kevin McAllister in the comedy film Home Alone. *Stancroft was inspired by Bernie Madoff. *According to Baxford, Stancroft owns a yacht, a mansion in the Hamptons and a penthouse in Central Park. Stancroft confirms this is true. Category:Wealthy Category:Businessmen Category:Social Darwinists Category:Deceased Category:Scapegoat Category:Cowards Category:Elderly Category:Destroyer of Innocence Category:Non-Action Category:Thief Category:Corrupt Officials Category:Corrupting Influence Category:Charismatic Category:Greedy Category:Master of Hero Category:Liars Category:Leader Category:Cult Leaders